Color Me Fuzzy Wuzzy

Here's your nightly math! Just 5 quick minutes of number fun for kids and parents at home. Read a cool fun fact, followed by math riddles at different levels so everyone can jump in. Your kids will love you for it.

Color Me Fuzzy Wuzzy

Yes, Fuzzy Wuzzy is a color — at least when it comes to Crayola crayons. We all know and love the 24-crayon Crayola box….it has the red-violet and violet-red that sound almost the same, but really are different from each other. But Crayola has rolled out a huge number of fun colors since they started in 1905. They’ve made more than 200 shades: metallic colors, neon colors, and fun shades like Mango Tango and Outer Space. Better yet, in 1993 they launched the first color named by kids, “macaroni and cheese.” But even if the red and blue crayons aren’t quite as exciting, we still can’t live — or draw — without them.

Wee ones: See if you can find 4 red things in your room. Now try to find 3 blue things. For which color did you search for more objects, red or blue?

Little kids: If you have 2 of those 4-crayon packs that restaurants give out with the kids’ menu, how many crayons do you have? Bonus: If you have a new box of 24 crayons and start using the yellow-green first, how many crayons are still fresh and pointy?

Big kids: If you take a new 24-pack of crayons, peel 1/2 of them to rub them sideways on paper, and leave another 9 crayons to melt in the car, how many fresh pointy crayons are left? Bonus: If 203 Crayola colors exist, how many of those are not in the awesome 72-crayon pack?

Answers:Wee ones: You looked for more red things.

Little kids: 8 crayons. Bonus: 23 crayons.

Big kids: Just 3 crayons, since you peeled 12 and then melted another 9. Bonus: 131 crayons.

About the Author

Laura Bilodeau Overdeck is founder and president of Bedtime Math Foundation. Her goal is to make math as playful for kids as it was for her when she was a child. Her mom had Laura baking before she could walk, and her dad had her using power tools at a very unsafe age, measuring lengths, widths and angles in the process. Armed with this early love of numbers, Laura went on to get a BA in astrophysics from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business; she continues to star-gaze today. Laura’s other interests include her three lively children, chocolate, extreme vehicles, and Lego Mindstorms.